beneath the surface: making underwater images communicate

Tag Archives: micro 4/3.

The underwater photography market is saturated with images…how can our images stand out in this noise? Reflections at 3 weeks to book launch

The underwater photography market is saturated with images…how can our images stand out in this noise?

The underwater photography market is saturated with images, which are now produced by the million every year. There are lots of average pictures out there, but there is also an explosion of good images too. How can our images stand out in this noise?

The book that I’m advocating has some answers. But I already anticipate a cry that the book market is equally saturated. Or is it? Although I draw heavily on the existing body of knowledge, I seek to differentiate too, so the book “Winning Images” dives into some unexplored gaps in our knowledge of underwater photographic composition.

Our top-side photography cousins made more progress than divers with this. We know the basics, I’m sure: negative space, the rule of thirds and so on, which are valid and worth developing. But nobody has articulated 2 important things in its underwater context. Foremost is a detailed model for composition. Not rules, but a structure for thinking more consistently about the issues. I’ve provided us with a starting point. Next is consideration of the weight that we attribute to each of the different and sometimes competing composition concepts. The book deals with – and develops in detail – 8 concepts, but more critically an overarching theory of how they all fit together.

Although the independent first reviews of the book are not yet published, I do know that one notable critic already believes that this will become the bible for underwater photography composition. So consider making a modest investment in something that I am confident will make you a better photographer. Signed copies of the book for those who want it quickly are on sale now in the UK through this link. But if you can wait, do join me and Alex Mustard at the book launch in London (details below); I extend an open invitation to everybody who is interested and will provide you with some wine, soft drinks, canapes and an opportunity to buy the book.

I spent a year agonising about my next DSLR, or whether I would even get one with the micro 4/3rds format looking so impressive. There is so much technology on offer that it seems difficult to make a bad choice. So I worried less about the numbers (measurebating as Alex Mustard so eloquently puts it) and more about where my photography might go, now that I can devote time to it. Alex had already sowed a seed in my head years ago in an article that he wrote for Martin Edge’s book, The Underwater Photographer. It concluded with that most difficult issue for any photographer: with so many good photographers and great images out there, how do you develop a photographic style? Well, a few years after reading the article and on the cusp of upgrading my trusty D300, it finally clicked what should drive the camera choice, namely photographic intent and not technological edge. So I have at long last made a critical choice and acquired a full format camera. For the next few years it will be a combination of Nikon D4 and an Olympus XZ-2 compact. Oh, and the style that I would like to develop? Ask me at the Dive Show or keep following this blog…